From Seven Months to Seven Days

Seven months ago, I anxiously hit the "submit" button for the application to join Latin America Mission in hopes to fulfill a calling from The Lord.  Since then, God has rained down affirmation upon this ministry and how I am to serve as a participant in their Avance program in Mexico City -one of the largest cities in the world.
I am writing to all of you in a humbled position where I find myself seven days from deployment with a wonderful ministry team of partners that have joined me in prayer in finance.  There is so much that I wish to write about/ share with/ give praise to and it comes to a point where I don't know where to start! This is the first official blog that I will be sharing during this 11 month journey in Mexico City and I am so excited to see how God is going to move in this metropolis.


How about we start with some praise?!
Particularly, it has been an interesting and stretching experience the last few months preparing for this year of service and trusting the Lord through it all.

I shout praise out to the Big Guy upstairs that my goal of $19,500 is almost reached!  As of today's date and my knowledge, the Lord has poured down blessings in finding partners to join me in ministry and I am happy to report that I am 95.5% supported! $18,500 -can you believe it?! 

I also give praise for the opportunities that God has set ahead of me while serving in Mexico City.  Officially as of September 3rd, I have been admitted to the William Carey International University and have enrolled in some pretty sweet courses that start in October for my Masters of Art in International Development with Ministry!

Next is that I have learned some great news from my ministry as of last week!  As many of you know, I will be serving with the Mexican branch of a campus ministry called InterVaristy.  However, I will also be serving with a Christian publication house called MILAMEX.  With MILAMEX, I will be utilizing everything learned at Oshkosh as I will be their photographer for their monthly magazine, doing some documentary and heres the zinger: helping produce radio programming for woman in the Mexico City area.  -I can't believe that every part of my Radio/TV/Film degree will be put to use this coming year.

One last thing to keep this blog relatively short is that I have been able to get in contact with my Spanish tutor prior to deployment over Skype and so far, so good!  My Spanish isn't as rusty as I had thought, however there is much room for improvement!  Turns out in May, my team and myself will be taking a comprehension test at the University of Mexico to see how our language skill is at.  If passing, we will receive a certificate indicating that Spanish is indeed one of our official languages - how cool?!


As the date of deployment sneaks up closer and closer, there are many ways we can be praying for myself and this ministry!

Please pray for my team as we prepare for this year of service.  Pray that our talents and passions can be used together to make a fruitful impact on this city.  As we prepare for our deployment, also pray against spiritual warfare as the enemy knows that great things are about to be done for our Father's Great Kingdom.

Please pray for communication skills.  A few of us on the team knows Spanish well, however it is not a native tongue to any of us so please pray that we can effectively fall into the culture at its routes to better understand this new world around us.

A praise/prayer request is that I have been placed in a Cell Group with the campus ministry that I will be working with.  Since there are no other men on my team, this Cell group is crucial for my growth with the Lord where I can find complete transparency. Please pray for this group that I can fall into place with these guys so we can then take off running! 

One last prayer request is a financial one  -Praise the Lord that almost all of the year's support has come in! However, there are still a handful of prospective partners that I am in communication with as of now and I am still praying for partners to come on board at $25, $50, and $100 in monthly finance and prayer.  It would be awesome to reach my goal prior to leaving and also to surpass it so then there can be funds to travel back to the States or for any other financial things that may come up during this year out!


Thank you to all who is reading this blog and praying for this ministry!  I praise the Lord for this wonderful opportunity that will completely change my life and I am also thankful to have all of you to be part of it!  I am excited to know that the next blog that you are to read will be coming straight from Mexico City itself!       ¡Bendiciones!


Please email me at erikhamiltoncole@gmail.com if you have any questions, prayer requests, etc.